Translation

[Anon100]

Hi there.

 

I am looking to get a tattoo. I really love the look of Chinese symbols, there is something really beautiful about them. So I am just wondering what this translates to??  
和
爱 
健
繁

Thank you !

[NanJingDongLu]

Absolutely nothing. This is a collection of half words with no context (most chinese words have 2 characters). What meaning were you trying to express?

[Anon100]

I was hoping for it to say peace, love, health, prosperity 

 

is there a way for them to be singular symbols or do they usually come in pairs?

[ZhuoMing]

I wouldn't say they are meaningless.  Single characters like these are often used to depict certain meanings (for example the 福 character can be found anywhere, even though it could be considered a "half-word" in modern Chinese ).

 

For the meanings they convey, I am no expert on this so I should probably let someone else answer. But if I were to make some guesses,

和 - peace/harmony

爱 - love

健 - healthy(??)

繁 - numerous(????) 

 

As for whether these actually make sense on their own enough to be used for a tattoo, I couldn't tell you. A Chinese person could provide better cultural context.   

[Lu]

In any case, don't get a Chinese character tattoo if you don't know anything about Chinese or characters. The odds are too high that either you get it wrong, or the tattooist gets it wrong or picks an ugly font, and you'll have it on your body permanently. Perhaps find a calligrapher and get a nice scroll with these concepts, or pick a font you like and get these words in English. That way, you can actually read the nice things you wish from life.

[amytheorangutan]

I would definitely get a Chinese calligrapher to design the tattoo. Not only will they be able to create beautiful font and design (if you ask a tattoo artist who can't write Chinese characters, there is a pretty big chance that the characters will look like a child has drawn them, yup I say drawn because that's what people who don't know how to write them would do), they can also come up with better combination of words/characters to convey the meaning you want  https://instagram.com/bbzm_dk?igshid=uvufl196mtjt

[Anon100]

Not to come across rude but if I wanted calligraphy or other words, I wouldn’t have asked this question. I am not looking for suggestions, I’m looking for a simple translation as I KNOW it’s permanent. 
 

if you are not here to answer my question, I’d rather you not say anything at all. 
 

I love the Chinese culture and genuinely think it’s beautiful, I am not in any way trying to appropriate the culture, I just would like some help. 

[Lu]

Chinese characters certainly are beautiful. I still recommend not getting something you don't understand at all tattooed on yourself, no matter how beautiful. If you want a simple translation and no opinions, this forum was not the best place to ask.

 

All the best with the tattoo. Post a picture here once it's done. Hopefully you find a tattooist who knows what they're doing and it all turns out well.

[NanJingDongLu]

While everyone has their own opinion on whether non-asian people who don't speak Chinese should be getting Chinese characters tattooed on their body, we can all agree that some tattoos are better than others. Let's try to help our friend avoid ending up like this poor fellow

 

 

As @ZhuoMing said, 和 on it's own does mean peace, and 爱 is commonly used as a single character to mean love. 健 and 繁 just looks like someone google translated healthy and prosperous and cut the end off 健康 and 繁荣. But there are other characters with nice meanings you could replace them with, like 福 or 力. Can anyone provide suggestions for any other good single characters?

 

@Anon100 Do you have any other words you'd be happy to substitute in that might be easier to work with? Another option would be 健康快乐 which is a common thing to wish to people and it means health and happiness.

 

If you were open to something funny, may I suggest getting a portrait of Harambe with the phrase 念念不忘 underneath? It's technically not a perfect translation as it also has a secondary meaning of "to always be preoccupied with/thinking about" but if you type it into google translate it comes up with the desired meaning of "never forget"

 

[NanJingDongLu]

2 minutes ago, NanJingDongLu said:

a portrait of Harambe with the phrase 念念不忘 underneath

Just think about it man, it could be glorious

 

[Lu]

18 minutes ago, NanJingDongLu said:

Let's try to help our friend avoid ending up like this poor fellow

I fully believe that was intentional. Cool tattoo that reads 'tattoo'. Like the guy who got something like 麻辣鸡汤 on his leg and knew exactly what he was getting.

[NanJingDongLu]

@Lu You're probably right. It actually is a cool thing to do if you know what you're doing. A sort of social commentary on tattoo culture, so to speak. It's less funny if you didn't know and got pranked by the tattoo artist though...

 

I'm just trying to help @Anon100 avoid the fate of the guy who wanted "crazy shit" and got "狂泻" which is closer to "wild diarrhea"

[Lu]

2 minutes ago, NanJingDongLu said:

I'm just trying to help @Anon100 avoid the fate of the guy who wanted "crazy shit" and got "狂泻" which is closer to "wild diarrhea"

Hanzismatter actually interviewed that lady and she also got exactly the joke tattoo she wanted. Whether you (or she, ten years later) finds it funny is a matter of opinion of course. And your cause of wanting to help people avoid mistakes is a noble one which I share.

[NanJingDongLu]

The disappointing thing about bad Chinese tattoos is they are very rarely as ridiculous as everyone makes out. I thought by learning chinese I would be able to see people walking around the streets where I live with tattoos saying "i'm an idiot" or "rat poison pizza" but in reality the worst that really happens is grammar mistakes the equivalent of "I loves mine family" or "it's is my life - Bon Jovi". All the genuinely ridiculous ones were intentional.

[abcdefg]

 

17 hours ago, Anon100 said:

I was hoping for it to say peace, love, health, prosperity. is there a way for them to be singular symbols or do they usually come in pairs?

 

These concepts that you want to express are all two-part words. The tattoo would make much more sense if written this way: 

 

和平 = peace

爱情 = love

健康 = health

繁荣 = prosperity 

 

Using the single characters, as in your original version, would look ignorant and wrong. It would be illiterate. It would brand you as someone who didn't care about the culture or the language, which I realize is definitely not your intent. Anyone who saw it years later would have to suppress a smile if they could read and understand Chinese. I would humbly suggest getting it done right, with the double characters, or not at all. 

 

6 hours ago, Anon100 said:

I love the Chinese culture and genuinely think it’s beautiful...

 

Like others have said above, it will be important to find a tattoo artist who is experienced in dealing with Chinese characters. Many say they can do a good job and have stencils for a few things properly drawn on the studio wall as examples of thier craft. But when they start on your skin, they cannot execute it well. It requires special training and special skill. Best bet would be to find an Asian tattoo artist who grew up writing Chinese characters from an early age. 

 

Good luck with the project! Sorry you had to take so much flack from us. 

[TaxiAsh]

On 5/11/2021 at 8:36 PM, Anon100 said:

I am looking to get a tattoo. I really love the look of Chinese symbols, there is something really beautiful about them.

I've read all the comments.

 

My contribution is this Anon100,

 

watch this film, it's 8 minutes long. Nothing in comparison to lifetime tattoo. This could be the difference between looking great, and looking terrible. 

She is a Chinese teacher, and I think a lot of learners like her channel, and respect her. She knows western culture very well. 

 

Also google 'cheng yu', Chinese idioms (that are often ancient stories compacted into 4 characters, and have exact translations in English). You can find a 4 character long phrase, that works in both English and Chinese. But check first before needle, so you don't write a silly one that no one uses. 

 

And make sure you pick a tattooist that you can look at examples first, or even better, look for a Chinese tattooist. 

 

 

https://youtu.be/FTe78u5m7RM

[Singe]

2 hours ago, TaxiAsh said:

My contribution is this Anon100,

 

....and a very good contribution to the opening post it was too.

 

That video is well worth watching for anyone coming on here asking about tattoos. How often do we see queries about tattoos? Very often. Very witty video and really makes the point that if you're adamant about wanting a Chinese character as a tattoo, do your research - and I guess that's what the opening poster is doing by posing the question on here.

 

Not sure I agree with her about font choice. She prefers a font in hand-writing style. Maybe it's a reflection of my less perfect Chinese, but I'd prefer a standard font any day. Probably so I can actually read it.